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Bird Nesting News for 2011 – A warm spring helps again

With the end of the year fast approaching, it is time to reflect back with regard to the bird nesting season for 2011. All the data has now been computerized and passed on to the British Trust for Ornithology and here below is a summary of the results.

The early warm spring this year certainly had a major impact on the nesting season, especially for Blue and Great tits. They were able to start nesting early in April; a trend that also occurred in 2010 as that too was a warm month.  The survey of the nest boxes within the woodland found a total of thirty nests, twenty-five of which were blue tit, the other five being great tits. From these boxes, only one Blue tit nest failed to produce any young, the rest were successful. The twenty-four Blue tit nests raised a total of one hundred and ninety-two young, and the five Great tit nests raised forty -four young. Both these totals are better than the totals for 2010, when the Blue tits produced one hundred and forty-one young and the Great tits produced thirty-six young. The probable cause of this was the warm dry weather, this giving the adults’ maximum time to hunt for food for the young without having to shelter them and keep the young warm while it was wet. Nearly all the young birds had fledged by the end of May, before the cooler conditions set in.

Other nesting successes on the site included the pair of Kestrels – for the second year running they raised two young to fledging within the central woodland on the site. Kestrels are still being seen at the time of writing (October), especially around the 16^th and 17^th holes.

After writing in a previous report that a pair of Mandarin ducks was present on the lakes at the club and that a nesting box had been provided for them to use. It was not expected that they would show much interest in it for the first year, but we were proved wrong! A check inside barely two weeks after it was put up revealed five white eggs, which quickly increased to a total of fifteen! The female bird was then seen inside the box regularly, normally with the male perched in a tree close by. On the 1^st June, a check revealed that the female had left the nest, but not all the eggs had hatched – seven were left whole along with lots of shell fragments. It is not too surprising that some eggs didn’t hatch as it would have been difficult for the female to sit on such a large number. The female was only seen once with six young in attendance on the decoy lake so it is not known if any survived to adulthood. Female birds with young can be very secretive to help protect them from predation hence why she was not seen more often. The last sighting for the summer of two adult Mandarin ducks was in early July, but since then a pair have reappeared once on the decoy lake so it is hoped they will nest again in 2012.

As always there are failures as well as the successes mentioned above. No Kingfishers nested on site this year, with the regular birds disappearing for the summer. They did return in September, and are still present now, being seen especially around the lake near the Clubhouse.

Unfortunately the Hobbies didn’t nest again this year. They were seen a few times early in the summer but then left. A single young bird was seen in September, indicating that nesting had taken place somewhere nearby, so at least they were successful.

Now winter is approaching, there are a few birds that can be looked for around the site. Watch out for small flocks of Redwings, mainly around berry-bearing trees. These small thrushes with a bright white eye-stripe and red under their wings are visitors from Scandinavia and come to Britain for our relatively milder winters. The woods on the left of the 8^th hole are a good place to find them. Another visitor from northern countries is the Siskin. These small greenish finches can be found in flocks feeding on the seeds of Alder and Birch trees. Their presence is often given away by the loud twittering calls they make as they feed and fly around, seeming very social birds. The best place to find them on the course is around the 15^th hole in the big Alder trees there.

Neil Sherman– Conservation Manager